Local businesswomen publish e-magazine for women in sales

The concept of “business is a man’s world” is clearly an outdated idea as more and more women make their marks as business professionals, executives and small business owners. However, there are still many remnants of what was once a male-dominated occupation in the methods and practices of the business world. Such was the discovery of Jennifer Alford and Rebecca Booth, co-founders of The Sales Purse, a new e-magazine on sales and lifestyle geared specifically toward women.

Jennifer Alford and Rebecca Booth, co-founders of The Sales Purse, a new e-magazine on sales and lifestyle geared specifically toward women.

“There are many women who work in the sales role. Rebecca and I are both in sales. But when we looked for some kind of publication or journal to help give us advice, we didn’t find anything, so we created one,” said Alford, editor-in-chief of The Sales Purse and co-owner of Creative Financial Partners, a comprehensive financial planning firm in Perrysburg.

“Cold-calling is the traditional way of selling. It’s also a male-driven way of selling. Women don’t respond to cold-calling. Women are relationship-driven. I knew marketing, but I had to learn how to sell and there wasn’t much out there for women,” said Booth, creative director of The Sales Purse and owner of Marketing Works Imagine That!, a graphic design, copywriting and marketing consulting company.

The pair met in 2000 at Women’s Entrepreneurial Network, a networking group for female business owners to share their experiences and learn tips on finance, business software, sales, marketing and entrepreneurship.

“We figured out we had a similar business philosophy, that being we want to use our skills to help other people in business. There was a lot we could teach each other. We’ve been friends ever since,” Booth said.

Apple picked up The Sales Purse for the Appstore after the first submission, an early victory that Alford and Booth said surprised them. They had a soft launch of their first issue in February, featuring a theme of love and articles encouraging readers to love themselves and love their work. This debut issue is available for free from the magazine’s website. The Sales Purse officially hit the digital presses in March. The March issue, which focused on strength, featured an interview with the internationally renowned Kim Duke of Alberta, Canada, owner of The Sales Diva, a sales consulting company for women.

“We want this to appeal to women anywhere,” Alford said.

Every issue of The Sales Purse will feature a lead article about sales, usually featuring an interview with a woman who has been successful in business. In keeping with the magazine’s broad scope, featured women will come from all over the country and world, but Alford and Booth also plan look close to home and sometimes feature a businesswoman from Northwest Ohio.

The magazine’s format is set up just like the contents of a woman’s purse. “The Wallet” covers money; “The Cell Phone” shares communication tips for women in business; and “The Vitamin Box” focuses on health and wellness.

“One of our most interesting segments is “The Shocker.” Every woman has one thing in her purse that would surprise people. So we ask the woman we feature in each issue: ‘What shocking thing is in your purse right now?’” Alford said.

The vast majority of the content is written by the magazine’s founders, with Alford, who is also a contributing writer for Advisor Today, focusing on copy and Booth handling layout and design. Each issue will be around 30 pages, with articles kept short to be consumed in a single 15-20 minute sitting.

“Our goal is to have a woman read the magazine after a long day, maybe when dinner is in the over or the kids have just gone to bed. We want to educate her and get her jazzed up for tomorrow,” Booth said.

The Sales Purse is available for download from Apple Appstore or fromwww.thesalespurse.com as a PDF.

The Sales Purse does not currently contain any advertising, and that is intentional.

“Our time with readers is precious. We’re focused on building a relationship with them. Right now, it doesn’t help with our destiny and doesn’t help our readers with their issues,” Booth said.

That readership, which has grown steadily since the magazine’s inaugural issue, is composed of about a 75 percent American audience and about 25 percent around the globe in places as far away as Southeast Asia and Africa.

“It tickles my heart that we can help a woman start a business in a third world country,” Booth said.

While the magazine does not have advertising, Alford and Booth do have “sellables” in the form of framed watercolor inspirational sayings for women that say such things as “You amaze me” and “She believed she could so she did.” The uplifting messages can be ordered online and sent to someone going through hardship or in need of encouragement.

The Sales Purse is available for download from Apple Appstore or from www.thesalespurse.com as a PDF. Alford and Booth are currently working to create an app for the Amazon Kindle as well. A subscription is $4.99 per month or $47.99 per year. New issues are released in the middle of each month.

Forum aims to open dialog to improve police, youth relationship

Three area police chiefs, Toledo youth and University of Toledo students came together to discuss ways to improve the relationship between badge-holders and young people April 3.

The “Enhancing Relations Between Toledo Youth and Law Enforcement” forum was organized by Lorna Gonsalves, a professor for an “Understanding Racism” class for criminal justice students at UT. Gonsalves wanted her students to get involved in a community action project, and throughout her work around the world, she said she noticed tenuous relations between police and youth.

“You are our most precious resource and really it’s in your hands where our future lies,” Gonsalves told the youth in the crowd of about 100.

“Many times when we deal with things on the street, we deal with things in a certain structure and a certain way,” Diggs said of police, adding that it can be difficult for youth and police to understand one another.

“One of the things I hear from youth all the time is they don’t trust police,” he said.

Newton recommended education and communication as ways to cure the “bad blood” between the groups, a sentiment Navarre echoed.

“The solution is communication and education and we can educate each other by communicating with each other,” he said.

Honesty in dealing with police is also key, Navarre said. “Police officers are lied to every single day of the week … their most difficult task is trying to discern who is telling the truth,” he said.

Shakyra Diaz, the policy director from the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, also addressed the crowd. Diaz brought cards informing people how to behave if stopped by police and a large part of the forum was suggesting ways to potentially distribute the cards to area youth.

Diaz reminded adults of their roles in children’s lives. “We lose sight of how important we are and our roles as adults,” she said, adding that while it takes a village to raise a child, “it takes a community to fail a child” as well.

Mutual understanding is also crucial.

“It’s important for young people to understand the work of a police officer can be difficult and dangerous,” Diaz said, adding, “It’s also important for police officers to understand that going through the teen years is very difficult.”

She praised the chiefs’ involvement with the forum and said, “Their presence is saying a lot, but continued dialogue is important.”

After the speeches, the crowd broke into groups to come up with suggestions on distributing the cards and improving relations.

“Every time a police officer stops someone, there’s panic,” said Wayne Pirtle, a Woodward High School senior and vice president of the school’s Student African American Brotherhood chapter. Most of the teens in the small group of about 15 had been stopped by police before.

Pirtle suggested police meeting with students in plain clothes to ease tensions, talk and distribute the cards. He also advocated cooperating when stopped by police.

Brother Washington Muhammad, group moderator and program coordinator for Self-Expression Teen Theater, urged police to take some of the blame for the tension between youth and authority.

“Accepting responsibility doesn’t make you a bad guy; accepting responsibility makes you a leader,” he said.

The groups then reconvened to share the suggestions, which will be forwarded to the police chiefs and school officials.

In addition to mutual respect, many of the suggestions centered on meeting police in casual settings designed to help kids see the “human” aspects of the officers. To help personalize the present chiefs, Gonsalves organized a brief guessing game of some of the chiefs’ favorite things. (Navarre enjoys T-bone steak and Newton’s favorite actress is Winona Ryder, which elicited several “who?”s from the youth.)

Gonsalves said she thinks a summertime picnic between youth and plainly clothed officers is in order. A forum discussing specific anecdotes of youth/police relations is also being planned.

“I could see many of the young people were burning to talk,” she said.